In a matter of four days, Bangladesh’s political landscape experienced a dramatic transformation. On 5th August, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, and on 8th August, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus was sworn in. The stark contrast between the fates of Hasina and Yunus reflects the profound shift. While Hasina had governed Bangladesh for over 15 years, Yunus, a continued target of her administration, had been living in self-imposed exile in France for several years. Consequently, upon his arrival in Dhaka to assume the role of Chief Advisor (de facto prime minister) of the interim government, Yunus described Hasina’s removal as the “second liberation of Bangladesh.”
The Fall of Sheikh Hasina Government: A Self-Inflicted Harm
Sheikh Hasina’s ouster is her own undoing. While she might not have had anything to do with the prime reason for protests, which was the return of the quota system in jobs facilitated by Dhaka High Court, the way her administration responded to the resultant protests by students made all the difference. The Students Against Discrimination (SAD) gave the first call for protests on the 6th of June, laying the foundation for what would emerge as the anti-quota movement. With an overwhelming response to the SAD’s call for countrywide protests, Sheikh Hasina’s government responded violently, with dozens of student protestors killed and hundreds wounded.
It was not in good taste for prime minister Hasina to call the students ‘Razakars’, a derogatory term in Bangla national consciousness, used for volunteers that assisted the Pakistan Army in its genocidal campaign against Bangla people during the liberation war of 1971. The subsequent government’s violent response helped the student movement morph into a nationwide protest movement, bringing the long-stressed popular grievances like chronic unemployment, growing inequality, rising inflation and a crackdown on political dissent into the foreground.
The outpouring of support for the student’s movement was not a sudden development or a choreographed one, though. Trouble was brewing for the last few years with the government’s perceived autocratic turn. For instance, Sheikh Hasina’s government adopted the Digital Security Act (DSA) in October 2018, allowing law and enforcement agencies to detain anyone without a warrant. It was seen by opposition, media and rights activists as a draconian legislation to stifle the dissent against Hasina’s centralization of power. Since then, scores of opposition members, activists, writers and anyone criticizing the government on the internet were detained under this legislation. There were allegations of torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearances by the security forces. This was more pronounced ahead of elections in January 2024 when the government detained thousands of opposition members, mostly belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamat-e-Islami, rights activists and dissenting voices.
Any non-partisan observer could see the trouble brewing in the country. During my visit to Bangladesh last November, I could also discern the strong anti-government sentiment, though people were scared to voice their grievances openly, fearing government reprisal. The reputation of government institutions, especially police, was hit due to claims of rampant corruption. For instance, in Sylhet division, I came across police stations like Lamaguri painted “Police is not for sale”, reflecting the level of distrust and legitimacy of police among the people.
Nevertheless, during the two months of the anti-quota movement, over 300 protestors were killed by the government forces, primarily police, an institution otherwise entrusted with safeguarding human lives. On 4th August, nearly 100 people were killed by government forces across Bangladesh. The severity of the police crackdown on protestors, with photos and videos showing armed police directly targeting unarmed students with the intention to kill, widened the protests against the government, pushing a large number of people from everyday walks of life to join the protest movement.
For instance, the heart-wrenching video of Abu Sayed, a 25-year-old student activist of Begum Rukeya University, being shot multiple times by the police only amplified the popular resentment against Sheikh Hasina while making him emblematic of the protest movement. Some of the other gut-wrenching visuals that emerged from different parts to deepen the resentment against the government included a boy hanging from a five-story building just to safeguard his life and a kid being shot in the eyes for peeping from the window, among dozens of others.
As such, after Shiekh Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country, the country descended into chaos, with protestors targeting every possible symbol of the Awami League government. They did not even spare historical landmarks such as the residence turned museum of country founder and Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, his statues, along with police stations and houses of Awami League members. In particular, the country’s policing system was left in disarray as thousands of police officers, who were seen as the violent hand of Sheikh Hasina, abandoned their police stations and went into hiding amidst public fury. The uncontrollable mobs even targeted the country’s religious minorities, such as Hindus and Ahmadiyyas, desecrating dozens of places of worship.
Interim Government and Challenges
Though the interim government was sworn in on 8th August under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus, there are both domestic and external challenges that it needs to navigate to bring stability to Bangladesh. Apart from Yunus, there are 15 other members of the interim government. Some of the prominent faces include Touhid Hossain, a former foreign secretary; Hassan Ariff, a former attorney general; Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an award-winning environmental lawyer; and Asif Nazrul, a law professor and writer. Additionally, Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist who was sentenced to two years in jail by Hasina’s government, along with SAD leaders Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, joined the interim government.
While the composition of the interim administration reflects a blend of intellect and young minds, the overhauling of the system should not come at the cost of the inclusiveness of the country and the rights of every stratum of the society, including minorities, which should be duly safeguarded. Though Bangladesh’s student movements have a long history right from their role in the liberation of the country from Pakistan’s yoke in 1971, they need to be careful not to allow any vested interest groups, including Islamists, to appropriate the movement, and those steering the movement should take it to the logical conclusion of providing the country with an inclusive yet reformed system with necessary accountability measures.
Aside from safeguarding the gains from thr ‘revolutionary’ protest movement, the foremost challenge for the interim government is to bring order to the country. In the aftermath of Hasina’s exits, nearly all the 639 police stations across the country were deserted by the police officers as mobs torched over three dozen police stations. Though most of the policemen rejoined the services later and nearly all police stations became operational, barring five, the challenges abound.
In the absence of police, religious minorities, particularly the Hindus, have been targeted. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist and Christian Unity Council (which voices concerns of religious minorities in the country), since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on 5th August, over 200 attacks have been reported against minorities across 52 districts of Bangladesh, resulting in the death of five Hindus and damage to dozens of houses and places of worship. As the culture of fear spread among minorities, many of them started protesting and chanting loud slogans of ‘Tomardesh Amardesh, Bangladesh Bangladesh’ (English translation: Your country, My country, Bangladesh Bangladesh). Nevertheless, ensuring the security of all vulnerable communities is a formidable challenge, even as Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus visited Dhaka’s Dhakeshwari temple to assure the Hindu community about his administration’s resolve to protect ‘Equal Rights for All’.
Additionally, the interim government faces a mounting task to fix Bangladesh’s struggling economy with high inflation and surging unemployment. As the World Bank reports suggest, Bangladesh’s total lending in 2024 was $2,854 million since 2020. The finance and planning adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, in the interim government, has duly acknowledged the challenge by asserting that tackling economic issues remains a top priority of the Yunus-led administration.
The Way Forward
Though the protest movement achieved its goal of ousting Sheikh Hasina’s government, there needs to be a systematic overhaul in Bangladesh with the required checks and balances in place. The next logical step forward should be preparing the stage for a free and fair election by restoring law and order in the country and removing fear from the minds of all sections of the people about participating in the next elections. As the leader of Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Begum Khaleda Zia rightly said from her bed in the hospital: “…we must build a meritocratic, competent, knowledge-based democratic Bangladesh….a Bangladesh free from exploitation….. a Bangladesh for all religions and ethnicities…..Not destruction, not vengeance, let's build a knowledge-based society.” Her son Tarique Rahman echoed the sentiments from London: “Set an example of responsibility and human rights, not violence, hatred, and revenge. If anyone tries to commit crimes using BNP's name, catch them and hand them over to the law”. As the main political party contending for power in Bangladesh now, expression of such sentiments should be followed by taking the right steps to remove the fears that had led BNP to boycott the last elections. Rather than making it difficult for the Awami League to contest the next elections, an atmosphere of trust and fearlessness must be created to lay the foundation of true democracy in the country.
While the interim government lays down the contours of what Nahid Islam, the student leader and part of Yunus administration said, “a new political contract” in the country, it would need to ensure that the rights of all communities, irrespective of any differentiation based on religion or any other identity are constitutionally protected. This is necessary to consolidate the democratic gains and usher in an era of participatory democracy in the country.
Nevertheless, as Bangladesh embarks on the challenging journey of rebuilding from the ground up, it must stay vigilant against rising extremist forces. The transformation of a peaceful anti-quota protest into a violent upheaval following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, including mob attacks on state and private property, national symbols like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue, and the targeting of minority communities, should serve as a cautionary tale. This anarchic situation illustrates the potential for a troubling future should extremist elements gain any influence. It makes it incumbent on the student groups to take their movement forward and emphasize the need for Bangladesh to carefully navigate its future to prevent falling prey to divisive and destructive forces.
Moreover, on the external front, the interim government would need to assure its neighbours like India and other international partners of maintaining friendlier relations. This is necessary to ensure that Bangladesh receives the necessary financial capital to turn around its economy and, by extension, provide relief to its people.
Madhurima Pramanik is a Research scholar at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She was coincidentally in Bangladesh as a tourist on the eve of the last eelctions. She wishes to thank Dr Waseem Malla for his editorial inputs for this article. The views expressed here are her own.
